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Don't say goodbye to 'pink slime' just yet

According to the Wall Street Journal, “pink slime” is back. Better known as finely textured beef by producers, this beef mixture is making a comeback led by Beef Products Inc. and Cargill Inc.

The apparent comeback is being credited to a raise in beef prices due to drought-stricken, herd shrinkage.

According to Cargill, finely texture beef is made, “When steaks and roasts are carved from a side of beef, small pieces of quality meat are left behind. In a process similar to separating milk from cream, those small pieces of beef are separated from the fat. The result is 100-percent beef that is exceptionally lean. The fat that has been separated is turned into tallow*. It is not added back to the ground beef.”

If you remember, back in 2012 social media platforms across the board shunned finely textured beef after TV reports questioned its legitimacy, and whispers of the term “pink slime” came into play.

Gregory Page, Executive chairman of Cargill, said they have almost recovered from the 2012 blitz with sales jumping threefold. Overall production still remains below what is was before 2012.

Hy-Vee Inc. was one grocery chain that dropped products containing the beef mixture in 2012, only to bring back the product because of consumer requests. Any product sold in their stores containing the mixture is aptly labeled as such.

Although some consumers have vowed never to eat “pink slime” again, the consumption of the product is on the rise, once again.